Plant cells contain distinct subcellular organelles, referred to generally as “plastids,” that are delimited by characteristic membrane systems and perform specialized functions within the cell. Particular plastids are responsible for photosynthesis, as well as the synthesis and storage of certain chemical compounds. All plastids are derived from proplastids that are present in the meristematic regions of the plant. Proplastids may develop into, for example: chloroplasts, etioplasts, chromoplasts, gerontoplasts, leucoplasts, amyloplasts, elaioplasts, and proteinoplasts. Plastids exist in a semi-autonomous fashion within the cell, containing their own genetic system and protein synthesis machinery, but relying upon a close cooperation with the nucleo-cytoplasmic system in their development and biosynthetic activities.
In photosynthetic leaf cells of higher plants the most conspicuous plastids are the chloroplasts. The most essential function of chloroplasts is the performance of the light-driven reactions of photosynthesis. But, chloroplasts also carry out many other biosynthetic processes of importance to the plant cell. For example, all of the cell's fatty acids are made by enzymes located in the chloroplast stroma, using the ATP, NAOPH, and carbohydrates readily available there. Moreover, the reducing power of light-activated electrons drives the reduction of nitrite (NO2−) to ammonia (NH3) in the chloroplast; this ammonia provides the plant with nitrogen required for the synthesis of amino acids and nucleotides.
The chloroplast also takes part in processes of particular importance in the agrochemical industry. For example, it is known that many herbicides act by blocking functions which are performed within the chloroplast. Recent studies have identified the specific target of several herbicides. For instance, triazine-derived herbicides inhibit photosynthesis by displacing a plastoquinone molecule from its binding site in the 32 kD polypeptide of the photosystem II. This 32 kD polypeptide is encoded in the chloroplast genome and synthesized by the organelle machinery. Mutant plants have been obtained which are resistant to triazine herbicides. These plants contain a mutant 32 kD polypeptide from which the plastoquinone can no longer be displaced by triazine herbicides. Sulfonylureas inhibit acetolactate synthase in the chloroplast. Acetolactate synthase is involved in isoleucine and valine synthesis. Glyphosate inhibits the function of 5-enol pyruvyl-3-phosphoshikimate synthase (EPSPS), which is an enzyme involved in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids. All these enzymes are encoded by the nuclear genome, but they are translocated into the chloroplast where the actual amino acid synthesis takes place.
Most chloroplast proteins are encoded in the nucleus of the plant cell, synthesized as larger precursor proteins in the cytosol, and post-translationally imported into the chloroplast. Import across the outer and inner envelope membranes into the stroma is the major means for entry of proteins destined for the stroma, the thylakoid membrane, and the thylakoid lumen. Localization of imported precursor proteins to the thylakoid membrane and thylakoid lumen is accomplished by four distinct mechanisms, including two that are homologous to bacterial protein transport systems. Thus, mechanisms for protein localization in the chloroplast are in part derived from the prokaryotic endosymbiont. Cline and Henry (1996), Annu. Rev. Cell. Dev. Biol. 12:1-26.
Precursor proteins destined for chloroplastic expression contain N-terminal extensions known as chloroplast transit peptides (CTPs). The transit peptide is instrumental for specific recognition of the chloroplast surface and in mediating the post-translational translocation of pre-proteins across the chloroplastic envelope and thence to the various sub-compartments within the chloroplast (e.g., stroma, thylakoid, and thylakoid membrane). These N-terminal transit peptide sequences contain all the information necessary for the import of the chloroplast protein into plastids; the transit peptide sequences are necessary and sufficient for plastid import.
Plant genes reported to have naturally-encoded transit peptide sequences at their N-terminus include the chloroplast small subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCo) (de Castro Silva-Filho et al. (1996), Plant Mol. Biol. 30:769-80; Schnell et al. (1991), J. Biol. Chem. 266:3335-42); EPSPS (see, e.g., Archer et al. (1990), J. Bioenerg. and Biomemb. 22:789-810 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,867,293, 7,045,684, and Re. 36,449); tryptophan synthase (Zhao et al. (1995), J. Biol. Chem. 270:6081-7); plastocyanin (Lawrence et al. (1997), J. Biol. Chem. 272:20357-63); chorismate synthase (Schmidt et al. (1993), J. Biol. Chem. 268:27447-57); the light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein (LHBP) (Lamppa et al. (1988), J. Biol. Chem. 263:14996-14999); and chloroplast protein of Arabidopsis thaliana (Lee et al. (2008), Plant Cell 20:1603-22). United States Patent Publication No. US 2010/0071090 provides certain chloroplast targeting peptides from Chlamydomonas sp.
However, the structural requirements for the information encoded by chloroplast targeting peptides remains elusive, due to their high level of sequence diversity and lack of common or consensus sequence motifs, though it is possible that there are distinct subgroups of chloroplast targeting peptides with independent structural motifs. Lee et al. (2008), supra. Further, not all of these sequences have been useful in the heterologous expression of chloroplast-targeted proteins in higher plants.